Path to Transcendence

He finally reached a small opening where he didn\'t sense anyone else in the vicinity. There were still a few people who were in the buildings around, but he couldn\'t sense them moving around. They were most likely still asleep.

Julius purposefully slowed down, allowing the man to catch up with him. The distance between him and the man was a straight shot now, so the man had a much easier time chasing after Julius.

He sensed the man gather mana in his right hand and cock back his fist. Julius\'s back was still turned to the man, so he probably thought that he could take Julius by surprise. However, Julius at the last second, dropped down avoiding the swinging arm, pivoted, and blasted a fist of his own right into the man\'s gut.

Julius had not been just running. He had been using that time to gather as much kinetic energy and create as many intricate layers of mana surrounding his skin, especially around his arm.

One thing Julius had realized after sparring with Aubrey and Edgar, was that even though he could use much more mana and more efficiently, he couldn\'t just use it all for offense. The more energy he put aside for it, the more he had to use to reinforce his own body so that it wouldn\'t fall apart when the backlash of the strike came.

With that being said, he also had [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal], thus he was much more lackadaisical with how much mana he dedicated to protecting himself. So as he uncorked his punch, he could distinctively feel his arm barely managing the force of the blow.

In hindsight, he could have used less energy in his attack, but the man was Tier 3 and Julius wasn\'t taking any chances.

Still, Julius was surprised when his punch completely folded the man and rocketed him over a couple of dozen feet down the alley, eventually smashing into the wall of a nearby building. Julius was able to sense some of the building\'s enchantments activate, protecting it from most of the impact.

He quickly activated [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal] and healed his arm, the speed of the healing was astonishing. He walked over to the man who still had not moved an inch and bent down, taking a look at him. For a second, Julius thought he might have killed the noble drunkard, but after he got closer he poked the man with his toe repeatedly, and he realized that the guy was just knocked unconscious.

That was anti-climatic, I know he was drunk but that seemed too easy. Julius almost felt bad for how hard he hit him.

There was blood trickling out of the man\'s mouth and he was breathing a little funny, but he was alive. Julius made sure to kick the guy so that he was lying on his side. Julius didn\'t want the man to swallow his own tongue on accident. Afterward, he stood back up and started to leave. However, as he was doing so, he was able to sense someone quickly approaching his location.

The person was fast, faster than Julius, so either a guard or someone else who was at an advanced tier. Julius hadn\'t let go of any of his skills yet and was paying attention to every movement the unknown made as he made his way to Julius. It wasn\'t until Julius could practically see him, that he let out a sigh of relief.

The face he saw was a very familiar one, it was actually the person he had been on his way to meet this morning. Julius wore a smile as he saw Declan approach. He didn\'t know if Declan was aware it was him, his ring did a good job suppressing his aura, so he wasn\'t sure.

However, it seemed that Declan did recognize Julius since he had a smile of his own on his face and had slowed down once he saw Julius standing over the body of the man.

Declan ignored the prone figure on the ground and gave Julius a big hug, before saying, "I had a sneaking suspicion that it was you. We got a report from someone saying that a noble was causing trouble for some young boy with black hair. Someone else was going to respond, but since I was around I decided to check instead." Declan had finally taken the time to look over at the unconscious body.

He used his foot to turn the man completely on his back. He had a weird look of recognition on his face and sighed. "I know who this is."

"You do?" Julius was curious as to the identity of the unknown man who had just assaulted him.

"Yep, Geoffrey Lagos. Certainly not the first time he has had an incident like this. His father is Lord Lagos, a very wealthy and powerful businessman in Heston. He has a company that engineers and constructs large shipping vessels for trade." Declan shook his head. "Lord Lagos himself is quite a pleasant man to work with, however, some of his sons have been spoiled rotten, which is unfortunately common with nobles."

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Julius could understand that. In his old world, it was also common to see wealthy parents end up being too busy to raise their children or the fact that they had so much money, that the children ended up becoming spoiled brats. Some things never change, even in another world.

Julius stood next to Declan and joined him in staring at the young Lagos with disdainful eyes. "What happens next?" He asked Declan.

"There are two options the way I see it. Option one is for you to press charges and we bring young Geoffrey back to the guardhouse and put him in jail. There would a be trial and his father would pay too much money and do everything in his power to prevent any harsh punishment, so he would probably be let go within a month or two. Or we could go to his father directly, figure out a punishment that we all agree upon and you get a favor or more from a powerful lord. I know you could use it." Declan explained nonchalantly.

Julius was a little surprised that Declan had offered the second option. He had thought that Declan was more of a stickler for the rules. However, the way Declan had described his options, he made it sound like he had gone through this before.

"And you\'re sure that this Geoffrey guy will get off lightly, even though he could have killed me earlier?" Julius felt a little frustrated at the circumstances, he would have expected a little more justice.

Declan looked apologetic but nodded his head. "Power and money mean a lot in this world. And his father has a lot of both. I would love to see a world where there is more accountability, but money and power are everything. At least this way, you will get something out of it, other than just gaining an enemy."

Power is everything in this world. Might is right or so they say. He reminded himself.

Julius wished that wasn\'t the case, but he was mature enough to understand that this was the way it worked. It was why he had been pushing himself so hard to get stronger. He had already come to the realization that he wouldn\'t get any freedom by staying weak, he would need to fight for it.

Julius didn\'t say anything in response. Just because he understood it, didn\'t mean he liked it. The man would have most likely killed him if he wasn\'t strong enough to defend himself. Declan didn\'t say anything, he just left Julius alone. He knew that this situation wasn\'t fair for Julius but gave him the chance to decide on the man\'s fate.

After a few minutes, Julius made his decision. He would much rather see the guy rot in a cell for the rest of his life, but if that wasn\'t going to happen, then the best thing he could do was to look after himself. If he could come out of this situation with something of value then he wouldn\'t complain. It\'s not like he particularly cared about this man either way, before Declan showed up he was going to leave the man unconscious in his own drool.

He looked at Declan and said, "Okay, so how do we go about contacting his father," while pointing at the prone body.

"First we need to get this guy back to the guardhouse in the meantime, once we get him there I have a way to contact Lord Lagos. However, is there anything you would want from him? Anything that might be hard to get a hold of? Lord Lagos would be willing to do a lot so that this situation goes away as quickly as possible. It will not be a good look on his business if word gets out."

Julius didn\'t really need anything, at least not that he could think of. Having a favor from a powerful lord would be nice to have in his back pocket, but other than that he couldn\'t of another one. He took a look at Geoffrey still passed out and wheezing from the ground. For some reason, Julius was really tempted to kick him. Just continuing to look at the drunk douchebag made Julius want to do it more and more. However, he held himself back, ramping up [Savage Dance] and reigning in his urges.

Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted a simple gold band wrapped around Geoffrey\'s middle finger. It was different than the other flashy and very shiny rings on the man\'s hand, this one looked it was practical. It was most likely a spatial ring, something that he had been wanting for a while now.

Julius looked at Declan and said, "Maybe, a spatial ring."

Declan did a double look at Julius, "Sorry, what was that?"

"You said if there was anything I wanted from Lord Lagos, so I said that I would like a spatial ring," Julius repeated a little more loudly.

Declan chuckled loudly as if he had just heard the funniest joke in the world. He didn\'t say anything to Julius and bent down to Geoffrey\'s hand, taking off the spatial ring and tossing it at Julius.

Julius caught the ring with a confused look on his face. He didn\'t mean that he wanted to steal the guy\'s ring, he was just trying to say that he wanted Lord Lagos to give him one. He knew that they were expensive after all.

Declan must have understood what Julius was feeling so he reassured him. "A spatial ring might be expensive for normal people, but for some like Lord Lagos, it means nothing. Even if you took everything inside that ring, it would still be much less than what he would be spending on getting his son out of this mess, the favors in themselves he would have to pull would be extraordinary. I\'ll let Lord Lagos know you decided to keep it, but just know that he will still feel obligated to repay you in another way."

"So I can just keep it? What if there is actually something of enormous value inside?" Julius was nervous, he didn\'t want to get Declan or himself in trouble for stealing from someone. Declan was a part of the city guards after all. If a police officer from his old world was caught doing something like this, they would be fired immediately.

"Trust me, there is no way Lord Lagos is entrusting anything of value to his son. He might spoil them, but he isn\'t stupid. There is probably some money and other personal items. Can you open it?" Declan asked him.

Julius tried to but something was preventing him.

Declan nodded to himself, "Eh, I should have known that it was protected with an aura-bound enchantment. Can you hand it to me?"

Julius handed the ring back over without hesitation. He watched as Declan opened up his aura and reached out to the ring. Julius was able to sense that Declan was doing something complex if the delicate and complicated aura manipulation was any sign. Then with a huge flex of power, Declan\'s aura obliterated something around the ring, Julius could feel some sort of enchantment fall apart like breaking glass, and then Declan handed it back to Julius.

Julius handled the ring and tried to enter it again. This time, whatever had been stopping him last time was no longer there. His consciousness was able to enter the ring and he was able to get a good sense of the items stored within.

What he saw surprised him.